


The Sky in Your Eyes

by ChickenXD



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Character Death, Multi, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 05:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1846240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChickenXD/pseuds/ChickenXD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sky Crawlers AU. Levi is the corporal in one of Survey Corps' base, and one day a new pilot appeared - a familiar face, that is Erwin. However Levi might be hiding something from Erwin, and it was up to Erwin to find out, the truth about their existence and about himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sky in Your Eyes

 It was a typical summer day.

The sky outside was clear and the sun was shining brightly. There were some birds flying around in the sky. The place was quiet, almost lifeless, but peaceful.

A brown dog ran out of a grey building, barking. A woman with red hair was chasing it, but the dog outran her. She finally decided to stop chasing, and looked up at the sky. Strangely enough, the dog stopped too, and looked up into the sky.

There was a small grey spot in the sky, a small dot against the blue background. A soft roar grew louder and louder as the dot grew bigger, and a few minutes later the two of them ran away from the concrete road into the grass fields.

A grey plane landed in front of them, the roar of its engine deafening. The woman covered her eyes from the strong winds, and the dog was barking wildly. Minutes later, the roar of the engines ceased, and after it had stopped completely, a glass cover opened at the top of the plane.

A man jumped off the plane, carrying a small bag. He took off his helmet and took out a cigarette and lit it with a match before he snapped the match in two and tossed it away. He then turned to look at the woman, who was just a few metres away from him.

“We were expecting you,” she said with a smile. “I’m the lead mechanic, Hanji Zoe.” She patted the dog’s head playfully, and put it back on the ground. “This little guy here is Bean, and you are?”

“Erwin Smith.” He gave a slight nod. “Nice to meet you.”

“You’re gonna want to see the boss,” she said as she turned to walk into the grey building again. “And then I suppose you gotta go to your room… I think Mike’s your roomie. I don’t know whether he’s there at the moment, though… well, that’s for later. Should I show you the way to the boss’ room?”

“Yes, please.”

~•~

“Enter.”

A blonde man with blue eyes entered the room, carrying a small bag. A black haired man was sitting behind a desk, going through some papers. He then turned to look at the blonde man in front of him, and took off his glasses.

“Erwin Smith, right? I was expecting you. I’m the one in charge of you now.” He went through some of his papers again. “Levi Ackerman. Call me Levi.”

“An honour to meet you, sir.”

“You’ll be in the same room with Mike Zacharias,” he continued. “By the way, I’m going to replace your plane with a new one tomorrow.”

“Can’t I keep this one?”

“Why would you not like a new one?”

“It’s just that I’ve gotten used to this one, so I’d prefer to keep it.”

“I’ve already ordered a replacement. It’s coming tomorrow.”

The two of them fell silent. Levi went through some of his papers again, signed a few of them, and went through more of them, as if he’d forgotten that Erwin was still standing in front of him. Erwin just stood silent, not complaining, as he waited for Levi to get done with his papers. He took the chance to look around the room – the room was dimly lit, although there were big windows behind Levi. There was a bookshelf in the corner, and a gramophone next to it. That aside, there wasn’t anything – not even a seat for Erwin to sit on.

Somehow, the scene felt familiar for Erwin.

Standing in front of a table, talking to someone. But whoever that someone is, he couldn’t remember.

Levi then took a cigarette, lit it with a match, and turned to look at Erwin as he smoke.

“I’m glad you smoke, sir,” Erwin suddenly said. “I don’t trust officers who don’t smoke.”

“Ooh? Interesting. And why is that?”

“Personal experience.”

Levi let out a small chuckle as he turned to his papers again. “Anything else?”

“May I ask what happened to the pilot before me, sir?”

“Edward Turner? Well, his job is done, so he’s no longer here. But you don’t need to know about him, do you.”

“It’s just strange that the old pilot isn’t here to hand over his plane, that’s usually how it is, isn’t it?”

“Anything else?” Levi sounded like he didn’t want to talk too much about Edward – Erwin could only speculate.

“…are you a kildren, sir?”

“Even if I am, it won’t change the state you’re in.”

Erwin then bowed down respectfully, and left the room. Levi looked at the door after Erwin left, and let out a sigh as he turned to his paperwork again.

~•~

A white-haired man was sitting on the dining table, reading newspaper. Not far away from him, a brown-haired woman – or more precisely a girl – was looking at whatever was inside the fridge, as if looking for something.

“Hey, Farlan,” she suddenly called. “I wonder where Mike is?”

“Probably off to see his girl again,” he answered. “Are you worried about him? That’s unlike you, Petra.”

“Well, he’s gonna have a new roommate.” After what seemed to be a lot of consideration, she took two bottles of beer and walked over to the man. “I bet that poor guy’s looking for him cause he can’t get in.”

“He’ll be back, or else Scary Corporal is gonna kick him in the balls,” he said as he took one of the bottles from her hands. She tried to take it back, but he already opened the bottle and drunk what was inside.

“Farlan!”

“Aww, come on, Petra, you can always take another one. Besides, women shouldn’t drink too much, you know?”

“Well, men aren’t supposed to drink _that_ much too, you know!”

They suddenly heard a click from the door. Both of them turned to look at a blonde man who just entered the room. The blonde man looked at the two of them, and a thin smile formed on his lips.

“Hello…”

“Ah, you’re the newbie!” Farlan exclaimed. “Come have a seat! Nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you too…”

“By the way, I’m Farlan Church, and this lady here is Petra Ral,” he said, and Petra smiled at him. “You’re looking for Mike, aren’t you? He’ll be back soon, hopefully.”

“Thank you,” Erwin said as he took a seat next to Farlan. “I’m Erwin Smith, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“You just arrived, right? Are you hungry? I think we got some food in the fridge…”

“Ah, I’m alright,” Erwin refused. “Besides, it’s almost lunchtime.”

Erwin looked around the room they were in. There were six chairs, three of them occupied at the moment. There was a big fridge on the right side of the room, and next to it, a few brown couches, and a table with some playing cards laid on it. There were some empty beer bottles lying on the floor, and a television by the window. The red curtains covering the windows were open, and sunlight showered the room.

It felt reminiscent, for unknown reasons.

“Then, Erwin,” Petra called. “Where were you stationed before this?”

“Well…” Erwin looked around, as if trying to find the answer to the question somewhere deep in his mind, but after a few minutes, he gave up and sighed, “Sorry, I don’t really remember.”

“Now, don’t look so down, Erwin,” Petra said. “It’s just a random question.”

“How many people are stationed here, by the way?”

“Well, I guess there are three,” Farlan answered. “Me, Petra, Mike. If we include you, four. Plus Corporal Levi, five.”

“He flies too?”

“He might look fifteen, but man, if you ever seen him fly, you won’t talk shit about him.”

“Well, you still do, Farlan,” Petra cut, much to Farlan’s annoyance. He turned to Petra and pinched her cheeks playfully.

“Well, you still do, Petra,” he said in return. “It’s just a metaphor, you see?”

Farlan closed the newspaper he read – the headline read “Survey Corps’ New Technology”. Farlan folded it in half, then in quarters, then pressed his fingers along the edges before finally flattening the newspaper.  
They then heard knocks coming from the door, and a huge man with blonde hair and moustache entered. He sniffed the air, then turned to the three people, and gave a nod.

“Erwin Smith, right? I’m Mike Zacharias.” He sat down next to Erwin, then circled his arms around Erwin’s shoulders and grabbed Erwin’s head with another head. “You’re my son now.”

“Stop claiming people as your son, Mike,” Petra said, but Mike shot her a glare and she only gave a sheepish smile as she looked away.

“You’ve gone to see Levi? How is he?” Mike fished for something in his pockets, then took out a set of keys. “Here, your keys.”  
“He’s strict and direct,” Erwin answered. “Typical of leaders, I suppose.”

“Don’t make him mad, and you’ll be fine,” Mike said. “Trust me, he may be half my height, but he once destroyed the bathroom door cause Farlan took too long of a shit.”

“Don’t listen to him, Erwin.”

The door suddenly flew open, and Levi walked into the room. Farlan immediately looked the other way, Petra tried her best to give a smile and say ‘hi’, Mike seemed to be indifferent, and Erwin only stared.

“Erwin, you go on a test flight with Mike,” Levi said as he lit a cigarette. “Go to the Titan’s western plant, go see if there are any activities. Mike, you report to me later.”

“Yes, sir.” Both of them stood up and walked out of the door.

As they left, Erwin could somehow feel Levi’s gaze burnt to his back.

~•~

Altitude 37,000. There were no other planes seen on the radar. The plane had just flown over the sea, and had only started to enter land again. The wind wasn’t too strong, the clouds were clear – good weather for surveying.

 _“Let’s fly lower, Falcon,”_ Erwin could hear Mike’s cracked voice over the radio.

_“Roger.”_

The two planes simultaneously manoeuvred closer to the ground, and then as if they had agreed at a certain altitude, started to fly at constant altitude again. Far below them was a huge grey structure full of machineries, but there was no activity there. Erwin turned his plane, making it upside down to take a closer look at the plant.

_“I see no activity, Raptor.”_

_“Me neither. Let’s go back.”_

 As both of them turned around to go back to their base, they suddenly heard the roar of engines. Erwin looked at his radar, and saw four red spots approaching the white spots representing their planes from different directions.

 _“There are four of them,”_ Erwin said. _“Do we engage or…”_

_“The two on eleven o’clock is mine.”_

Mike flew away before Erwin could say anything, and two red planes immediately followed Mike. Erwin pulled a lever to dispatch two shotguns, then started shooting the two planes tailing him. They were able to avoid the bullets and started shooting Erwin’s plane instead. He then steered his plane higher, and pulled the lever again.

The two planes exploded into a glob of grey smokes, and fell down through the clouds, leaving a trail of smokes. Erwin descended again, and looked around for Mike.

_“Did you get both of them, Falcon?”_

_“Yeah, I suppose you did too.”_

Mike broke out laughing, and Erwin couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. Both of them finally turned around, and disappeared together into the white clouds.

~•~

Levi walked into the empty bedroom, and closed the door behind him.

He’d missed this feeling – this warm, painful feeling in his chest.

A bag was lying on the floor, its zipper half open.

A brown jacket was lying on the bottom bed of the bunk.

There was a pack of cigarettes lying on the table, next to a box of matches. On the ashtray placed against the wall, there was a cigarette butt and a broken match. Levi took the broken match, inspected it, and put it back on the ashtray.

It felt so painfully familiar.

Yet it’s not the same.

He took the brown jacket lying on the bed and smelled it. A familiar scent filled his nostrils, yet he had no idea if he should cry or smile at the memory of that scent…

“Erwin,” he sobbed. “Erwin…”

~•~

Hanji and Bean were out at the field to greet Erwin and Mike when they landed. Mike jumped out of his plane, then walked over to Erwin and circled his arm around his neck.

“That’s my son!” Mike exclaimed. “Hanji, believe it or not, he took down two titans already!”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s cool,” Hanji said with a smile. “Levi’s waiting for you, Mike.”

“Hey, Erwin, tonight, I’ll introduce you to my girl, Nana,” Mike said as he gave Erwin a slap on the back and walked away. “So you’d better clear your schedule, you hear me, son?”

“Well, not like I have anything there yet…”

“Then keep it clear!” Mike waved his hand before he ran away. “See ya!”

Erwin lit a cigarette as he walked back into the dining room. He was expecting either Farlan or Petra to be there, but instead, he saw a young girl sitting on the couch. The girl had short red hair, tied into pigtails. She quickly turned to Erwin as he entered, and smiled.

“Hello!”

“Hello,” Erwin greeted. “Sorry, but you are?”  
“Isabel Magnolia! Nice to meet you,” she said as she stood up. She then proceeded to examine him from head to toe, then examined him again, as if he was a strange creature from outer space.

“I’ve never seen you here before.”

“I’m new here,” Erwin said with a smile. “Nice to meet you, Isabel. I’m Erwin. But…”

“Ahh! I know! You’re going to ask why a kid is here!”

Well, she certainly had answered that question quite a lot.

“I’m Levi’s adoptive sister, you see! His parents picked me up when I was a baby! So I don’t really feel like I’m adopted.”

“I see then…”

Isabel sat down on the couch again and started swaying her legs. “But nobody’s here, so it’s kind of boring… Aniki said I couldn’t bother him when he’s working too.

“Say, Erwin, are you a kildren too?”

“Yes,” Erwin said as he opened the fridge. There weren’t anything much, except for a few bottles of beer and some chocolate. Erwin took a chocolate bar for Isabel and a bottle of beer for himself.

“Kildrens don’t grow old, right?” she asked. “Why is that possible?”

“It’s not like we don’t, we just can’t,” Erwin answered. “But honestly, Isabel, do you want to grow old?”

“Umm…” She looked away, as if thinking hard, and then shook her head. “Not really. I don’t wanna be grumpy like aniki.”

“And you get to play all day as a kid,” Erwin said. “Joys of living as a kid.”

“But you guys are children as well,” she cut. “Don’t you guys have anything to play here aside from those huge planes? Anything I can play?”

“Well, I guess we can play something then,” he suggested. “Or maybe we should go around and watch everyone while they’re working.”

“Let’s go to the hangar! I want to play with Bean!” She stood up again, and grabbed Erwin’s arm as she dragged him out of the room.

~•~

The hangar smelt of smoke and avtur when Erwin and Isabel entered. A few mechanics were working on his plane and Mike’s plane, and Hanji was busy giving instructions to some of her men. She probably wouldn’t had noticed the two of them coming in had Isabel not shouted at the fire flowers caused by the welder.

“Don’t look at it,” Erwin warned as he covered Isabel’s eyes, but she pushed him away and continued watching. Erwin turned to look at Hanji, who could only sigh and signal to one of her subordinates to get Isabel a pair of glasses.

“Go do your thing, Erwin!” Hanji shouted. “I don’t want too many people in here! Or at least go get Levi!”

“Can I just wait outside? I’ll bring her to the Corporal later.”

“Whatever!”

Erwin walked out of the hangar, and lit another cigarette. Farlan, who happened to be outside, immediately noticed him and walked over.

“Babysitting?”

“Sort of,” Erwin answered. “I never knew the corporal would have a sister.”

“What, he sure looks too rough to be a brother,” Farlan said jokingly. “That kid adores him to no end though.”

“Doesn’t sound surprising if his family really picked her up.”

Silence took over. They could hear Hanji shouting out instructions to the workers, the noises of machines and welds, the hustle bustle of people busy at work, and among all those noises, the sound of Isabel’s laughter.

“You don’t really think she’s his sister, right?”

“She calls him ‘aniki’.”

“She’s his daughter.”

“Oh.” Farlan looked at Erwin, as if reacting some more reaction other than ‘oh’, but there seemed to be none. “Who’s her mother then? Petra?”

“She’d been around even before Petra’s here,” Farlan said. “From what I heard, she really is adopted.”

“Corporal’s going to need to marry someone in order to be eligible to adopt kids, right?” Erwin asked. “Then who’s this ‘someone’?”

“No idea. Probably a guy, though,” Farlan sighed. “I never heard about him playing around with women. Mike and Petra neither.”

“Maybe that Turner guy?”

Farlan only smiled as he looked away. “Told you I’ve no idea.”

Erwin didn’t press further. They could see Levi walking towards them from the faraway.

“Farlan, get back to work.”

“Aye, sir!” Farlan tapped Erwin’s shoulder once, then walked away. Levi leaned on the wall next to Erwin, and let out a sigh.

“Sorry about her.”

“It’s nothing. She’s been a good girl.”

“You can say so because you’ve never seen her nag me about getting a dog.”

They both fell silent, as if trying to listen to the voices coming from inside. They could still faintly hear Isabel laughing among the noises of the other machines.

“Sometimes I feel bad when I look at her,” Levi suddenly muttered. “She’ll catch up to me. What am I going to tell her when that happens?”

~•~

“You’ll be thankful I brought you here,” Mike said as he hopped off his motorcycle, and Erwin hopped off his own bike a few seconds later. They were in front of a small shop with a neon sign that read “Leonhardt’s”.

“Since you know the way here now, you won’t mind coming here tomorrow morning to pick up some burgers, right?”

“I do.”

“Anyway – this place is run by three kids, and trust me, you’ll kill for the burger,” Mike said as he opened the door. A blonde young man was there, busy serving customers. “Yo, Reiner.”

“Ahh, it’s my favourite customer!” the young man exclaimed. He walked over, and immediately noticed Erwin tailing Mike. “You brought a friend too, I see! Hello!”

“Hello…”

“Your usual table is empty,” Reiner said as he pointed to a table in the corner, by the windows. “The usual hamburgers, two portions? What would you guys like to drink?”

“Beer for me,” Mike said. “And Erwin…”

“Coffee is fine.”

“Gimme a sec,” Reiner said as he ran into the kitchen. Mike and Erwin sat on the table Reiner pointed out for them, and once they sat down, Erwin immediately lit a cigarette.  
“So… I guess Levi’s our topic,” Mike said. “What are you going to ask?”

“Actually, I’m more interested in Edward,” Erwin said. “What happened to him? If his plane is here, he wasn’t shot down.”

“Son, I told you we’re going to talk about Levi,” Mike sighed. “I heard Levi shot him.”  
“Excuse me?”  
“I know you want to ask,” Mike cut. “That’s just what I heard. But I know Levi’s the kind that carries around a gun 24/7.”

“Why would he shoot Edward?”

“Who knows what’s going on in that small head of his. Tried asking Levi, he chased me out. Tried asking Hanji, Moblit chased me out under her order.”

“At least you tried.”

“Nah. That Edward… he’s a bit like you,” Mike continued. “Silent, but thoughtful. Very polite. And really skilled, too.”

“That sounds a bit like you, too.”

Mike snorted through his nose.

“I’m serious,” Erwin said. “It probably sounds weird to you, but not for me.”  
“I’m glad you’re my roomie,” Mike said. “Anyway, I’m not going to tell you to stay away from Levi or something, alright? Just be careful – for your own good.”

“I don’t think he’s going to shoot me.”  
“Not on day one, yeah.”

The door flung open, and a woman with short blonde hair walked in. She glanced at the table in the corner by the windows, and smiled as she saw Mike sitting there.  
“Mikey!” The next second, she was sitting next to Mike, her arms around his shoulders. “How are you doing today?”

“Good as always,” Mike answered, his tone a bit more cheery than before. “Erwin, Nanaba. Nanaba, Erwin.”

“Oh my, hello,” she said as she turned to Erwin. “Mike told me he’s getting a new roommate. Well, please take care of him, then. And Mike, be nice to your roommate.”

“You talk like I’m never nice to Ed.”

“Ah, now that you mention it,” she said. “Since Erwin’s here, I guess Ed really is dead, huh?”  
Before Erwin could ask what that was supposed to mean, Reiner suddenly came with their food. Nanaba ordered some salad and juice, and Reiner left again.

“On a diet, Nanababe?” Mike joked. “You’re already beautiful this way, you know~”

“Oh, Mike, you smooth fucker.”

“Ah, sorry,” Mike said, as if he was pulled back to reality. “So where were we again? About Levi?”

“How’s he doing?” Nanaba asked. “Still as scary as ever?”

“I was warning him,” Mike said as he took a bit of his burger. “Just to make sure he doesn’t end up like a certain someone, you see.”

“He’ll be fine,” she said with a smile. “Isn’t that right, Erwin? Or are you my son now, too?”

“You’re OUR son now, Erwin.”

“Alright…”

~•~

The sky was pitch dark by the time Erwin got back to the base. The full moon was hanging up high in the sky, but it didn’t make the earth brighter in any way.

Erwin parked his motorcycle outside the hangar and hopped off. The door was open, and Erwin could see his plane there, newly fixed.

He’d have to part with his plane tomorrow – might as well kiss her goodbye now.

“Where’s Mike?”

Erwin turned to the voice, startled. Hanji was still sitting on the couch, with Bean sleeping on her lap. Erwin sighed in relief and walked over to his plane.

“He said he’s going to stay with Nanaba for tonight.” He touched the metal body of his plane lovingly, as if petting a beloved pet he didn’t want to let go. He’d been flying with this plane for as long as he could remember, known all of its features and weaknesses… and now it’s time to say goodbye. Erwin couldn’t help but feel a bit sad.

“Go to sleep,” Hanji said, turning Erwin’s attention back to her. “I’m turning off the lights now.”

~•~

Levi stood by the window, watching as the hangar’s lights turned off.

~•~

It was 5 AM when Erwin woke up. He got out of bed and checked the bunk above his, and as he expected, it was empty.

Erwin walked over to the table and checked if the water in the heater was still warm. It wasn’t exactly as warm as Erwin wanted it to be, so he added some more water and pressed down the switch. As he waited for the water to boil, he opened a sachet of coffee and emptied the contents into a mug.

The sky was reddish orange outside, and the sun hadn’t risen yet. He could hear the birds chirp and Bean’s bark coming from outside. The water boiled, causing a high-pitched noise, and he immediately shut the heater and poured the water into the mug.

The door suddenly flew open, and Mike walked in. He threw himself on Erwin’s bed and let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t tell Levi.”

“Sure. Coffee?”

“Ah…” Mike sat up with all his strength, then climbed up to his own bed. “Later. I’ll sleep first.”  
“Where were you all night?”

“Went to see the world,” Mike answered, and he could hear Erwin chuckle. “I’m not lying. Okay, ‘see the world’ might be an exaggeration.”

“Equating your girlfriend to the world isn’t an exaggeration.”

“Says the smooth fucker,” Mike said, followed by laughter. “I’m gonna sleep for a bit.”

“I’ll get you some burger,” Erwin offered as he stood up. “Are they open at this hour?”

“Yeah. Farlan once slept there overnight cause his bike was busted. I had to save him the next morning.”

“I’ll be back pretty soon.” Erwin put on his brown jacket and took his keys from the table. Mike muttered ‘careful’ as Erwin walked out of the door.

“Where are you going so early in the morning?”

Erwin turned to the voice, startled, and saw Levi walking towards him. Levi was wearing his usual uniform, plus a black coat. There were dark circles under his eyes, and it might be just Erwin’s feeling, but there seemed to be more of them compared to yesterday.

“I’m going to Leonhardt’s to get some breakfast,” Erwin answered as Levi took out a cigarette. Erwin instinctively took out his lighter, and walked over to Levi to light the cigarette. Levi observed quietly, looking into Erwin’s eyes, and muttered a soft ‘thanks’ as he stepped back.

“Is Mike ordering you around already or have you gotten sick of the food here?”  
“I thought it’s not a bad idea to stop there while I go out and find some fresh air.”

Levi fell silent as he exhaled some smoke through his mouth. Erwin too, merely stood there, without objecting to what Levi was doing. He didn’t seem to mind if Levi were to say ‘no, I’m not going to let you go’, nor did he seem to be scared – as if he was just waiting calmly for Levi to either move or stay. Hell, he probably wouldn’t mind if Levi just stood there forever.

“…be back in an hour. Get me a cheese steak. And while you’re at it, get something for Isabel. I’ll pay you back later.”

“You don’t have to, sir.”

Levi finally stepped aside, and Erwin bowed slightly as he walked past.

And then there was that feeling again.

That feeling, as if Levi was staring at Erwin’s back as he left.

~•~

Erwin parked his motorbike in front of the restaurant. The sign still said ‘closed’, but Erwin could see three people inside, preparing the restaurant to open. Erwin pushed the door open and walked in, and was greeted by two voices.

“We’re not open yet!” “Ah, it’s Mr. Smith!”

“Oh, sorry,” Erwin said. “I’ll wait outside for you guys to prepare, then.”  
“Annie… that’s rude…” a black-haired young man said. Next to him, a blonde-haired girl was busy flipping meat patties on the grill.

“No no no please do stay, Mr. Smith.” Reiner dragged Erwin into the restaurant, then seated him on the table by the kitchen. “Ahh, you haven’t met the two chefs, right? This is Bertholdt, and this is Annie.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Erwin said as he bowed his head slightly. Bertholdt smiled back nervously, meanwhile Annie only glanced at Erwin and turned her attention back to the grill.

“Are you guys really alright with me barging in at this hour?”

“Ahh, Mr. Church once had to sleep here because his bike was broken,” Reiner said as he took a mug and poured some coffee into it. “So what will it be, Mr. Smith?”

“Reiner, we’re not done yet.”

“Come on, Annie, you make a burger every ten seconds. Won’t take you that long.”  
“Is it really alright?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Reiner set down the mug in front of Erwin. “On the house, since you’re the first customer.”

“Just take your time,” Erwin said with a smile. “By the way, I’d like 4 burgers, a cheese steak, and… maybe you guys have waffles?”

“Simple enough,” Reiner said as he ran to the kitchen. “Hey, you guys hear that, right?”

“Well, Reiner,” Annie said as she hit Reiner’s head with a sauce bottle. “What about you help instead of sitting there doing nothing.”  
They suddenly heard a loud roar coming from the sky – no, it was several roars coming from the sky and they were so loud that they sounded like just one roar. Erwin rushed to the window and looked up to the sky – he could see several planes flying, and the plane in the middle was the biggest, like the leader of all the smaller planes.

“Titans?”

“Yeah. Gotta inform the base.”

“The phone’s over there.”

Erwin rushed to the phone booth, inserted some coins, and dialled a number. The roaring had ceased now, meaning that they had gotten further from the restaurant, and closer to the base.

“Corporal,” Erwin said once they were connected. “Five of them heading your way.”

“Yeah, I was told,” Levi answered. “You mean three.”

“No, there are five. I’m pretty sure. They’ll be there in… maybe 5 to 7 minutes.”

“…you’re at Leonhardt’s, aren’t you? Can you come back here real fast?”

“I will, sir, but I won’t make it in time…”

“I’ll fly your plane then. Come back here quick.”

“Please be careful with her, sir.”

Erwin hung up the phone and rushed out of the door. Reiner and Bertholdt were following him, and Annie followed a few seconds later.

“We’ll save your food for later,” Reiner said. “Be careful, alright?”

“Ah?” Erwin turned to look at them, confusion in his eyes, as if what Reiner said sounded strange for him.

“What for?”

~•~

By the time Erwin arrived at the base, the sky was a full-blown battlefield.

Planes were flying everywhere. Erwin could see the Titans’ planes he saw earlier in the restaurant, and the Survey Corps’ planes shooting them. The enemy fell down to the ground, trailing black smokes in the sky.

“Wouldn’t it be real nice if we can take one of those planes and analyze it?” Hanji was standing on the grass field, watching the fight enthusiastically. “Go Survey Corps! Survey Corps! Survey Corps! Wahoo!!!”

Bean was next to her, barking loudly as if cheering for the planes as well.

Erwin got down from his bike and lit a cigarette. Most of the enemy planes had been shot down, and the remaining Survey Corps planes in the sky were busy shooting the biggest plane. A plane was flying down towards the ground, although it didn’t seem to suffer too much damage.

“It’s my plane, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, Levi’s flying it,” Hanji answered. “I don’t see how there could be any problem with it though…”

The plane landed on the runway, and Levi hopped out of it as he opened his helmet. He walked over to the telephone right outside the hangar, and Erwin followed a few seconds later.

“I’d like to talk to Nile,” Levi said to the telephone. “I don’t care what excuses you have, put him on the line now.”

He then turned to Erwin. “Erwin, got any cigarette?”

Erwin took out a cigarette from his pocket, which Levi took, and then he let Erwin light it. Levi then turned his attention back to the phone.

“What do you mean he’s not there? Where is he then?”

The big red plane seemed to be trying its best to fight back, but as it was outnumbered, it soon fled away, most of the parts emitting black smokes. Three more planes descended from the sky unto the runway, and Erwin could see the technicians running to fix it as Farlan, Petra, and Mike hopped out.

“I guess you didn’t have time to get us food, Erwin?”  
“Sorry!” Erwin shouted. Farlan and Mike only smiled as they walked up to him.

“I guess someone’s pretty mad,” Farlan whispered. “Thanks for the warning, Erwin.”

“Don’t mention it,” Erwin answered. “I can’t believe they sent you guys false info though…”

“Wonders of the universe,” Mike said. “Someone’s getting kicked.”

“He’s there, and you’re covering him when we all could’ve gotten killed, why, thank you! I’m going there to give him a piece of my mind.”  
Levi hung up the phone angrily and turned to Erwin. “Erwin, we’re going to Nile’s office. Farlan, take care of my office.”

“Can I eat there, too?”

Levi grabbed Erwin’s wrist and dragged him away. “You leave another piece of gum under the table and you sleep outside tonight!”

Erwin and Levi got into a car, with Levi on the driver’s seat, and off they went. Erwin tried turning on the radio, but Levi slapped his hand away, and Erwin sat quietly in his seat. The needle on speedometer kept leaning further and further to the right side, and Erwin could easily tell that Levi was furious from the look in his eyes.

“You’re driving too fast.”

“Well, you’re not a traffic police, and not like there are any red lights here, so shut up!”

Levi finished his sentence just in time for another car to come from the other direction. Erwin grabbed the steering wheel and swerved the car away. Both cars came into a halt, and Levi was panting loudly.

“Oil! Watch where you’re going!” they could hear the other driver shouted. Without a second thought, Levi leaned out of the window although Erwin tried to pull him back.

“What about you watch it, old man!”

“Corporal, please stop…”

“Erwin, let go!”

“That guy in the car!” the other driver shouted again as he left. “Tell your friend to cut it off, okay!”

“Levi, let’s get out of here, we’re blocking the road…”Erwin tried to pull Levi back into the car, but he brushed Erwin away.

“Leave me alone!”

Levi quickly looked away after saying that, as if he felt guilty. He grabbed the steering wheel again, only to notice that his hands were trembling.

“Should I drive?” Erwin asked, and Levi shook his head. Levi clenched his hand on the steering wheel to stop it from trembling, and they left.

~•~

The car halted once again in front of a brick building. Levi got out of the car and quickly walked to the entrance. He knocked a few times, and seeing no answer, he kicked the door and knocked again.

“Open the fucking door!”

“Now, now…” A shorthaired woman opened the door and smiled sheepishly. “Uh… Corporal… we’ve been expecting you.”

“Good. Where the fuck is Nile?”

“Unfortunately, he’s… out right now…”

“Out to the grass field where he truly belongs? Let me in.”

The woman blocked the door with her body. “You see, sir, he’s not in… so I must request that you leave…”

“Well, now that’s rude of you, ma’am,” Levi said as he crossed his arms. “A guest is here, and you’re telling him to go home. Not even a damn cup of tea.”  
“That’s not what I was trying to…”

“Let me in or I’ll kick you out of the Survey Corps.”

The woman finally stepped aside in resignation, and Levi let out a rather cynical smile. She sure was aware that Levi is capable of getting someone fired.

“Now that’s simple, isn’t it,” he said as he walked past her. “Thank you.”  
The woman could only sigh. Erwin got off the car although he didn’t really need to, and lit a cigarette. The woman was still standing outside by the time he got out, and boy, she sure seemed worried. Erwin quietly wondered if she’d be fine after all the commotion.

“He hasn’t grown up at all,” she said with a sigh, and then she noticed Erwin. “Oh my, sorry, no offense.”

“Don't worry,” Erwin said as he snapped the matchstick in two and tossed it away. “People who might die tomorrow don’t really need to grow up, right.”

~•~

Levi was oddly silent on their way back. He’d told Erwin to take over the steering wheel, and he sat quietly in the passenger’s seat, looking out of the window. Seems like the whole commotion since morning had taken away most of his energy.

The sky had gotten dark, and the moon was hanging in the sky. Erwin silently wondered how much longer it’d take them before they got back to the base… by the time, he just wanted to flop on the bed and sleep. There probably won’t be any food left…

“Corporal, should we go to the burger restaurant?” Erwin asked. He wasn’t expecting an answer, really. “I mean, you must be pretty hungry, right?”  
Levi kept looking out of the window.

“…turn right on the fork ahead.”

“I thought we’re going back to the base.”

“Won’t take long,” Levi said. “We’ll eat and go back.”

~•~

They stopped in front of a small house, hidden in a forest. Levi walked to the front door, knelt down, and took a key from under the door. Erwin walked out of the car and looked around – the forest was dark and hidden, and in the midst of it, a house…

“Where is this, corporal?”

“It’s a holiday house, something like that,” Levi answered as he got in and turned on the lights. “You folks are expected to use it, but screw it, nobody really comes here twice.”

Erwin walked into the house and looked around. The house wasn’t what he’d call bad – there were expensive-looking decorations all over, and the things in it seemed to be very shiny. Levi walked into a room and dialled a number on the phone, while Erwin opened a random door next to the room Levi was in.

“Yes,” Erwin could hear Levi say. “I see… then I’ll leave it to you.” It was a bedroom – there was a big bed, a desk, and a wardrobe. Seems to be pretty normal…

“So you’re hungry?” Erwin quickly turned to Levi, who was already walking to the kitchen. “It’s pretty late now, so we’ll just stay here for the night. We’ll go back to the base tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll see what’s in the kitchen. Friendly reminder that I’m not the best cook in the base,” he said. Erwin took off his jacket and put it on the sofa. When he got into the kitchen, Levi was busy inspecting the contents of the fridge.

“There are eggs, cheese, some lettuce, ham…” Levi took all four ingredients out, placed them on the counter, and looked further. “What’s this, peppers? Here’s some rice, tomatoes… what do I make out of all this shit…”

“Do you need help, sir?”

“Hush, I always cook for Isabel,” Levi refused. He opened the cupboards, took out some bowls and spoons. “Just sit out there and listen to the radio or something.”  
“I feel bad because my superior’s cooking for me,” Erwin said as he helped take out a frying pan. Levi took the bowls, brought them to the sink, and rinsed them with water.

“If you want to be served, serve,” Levi said. “I forgot where I heard that from.”

“Well, that saying works for me too.”

“Do you not trust me to cook or something, Erwin?”

“But you’re the corporal here, aren’t you? So you should be the one ordering me around.”

“Well…” Levi smiled as he grabbed Erwin’s collar. “Sounds pretty good to me.”

“So, sir,” Erwin smiled back. “You should sit out there and wait as I prepare dinner.”

~•~

“Levi, I’m done.”

Erwin placed the omelette on two plates, and put them on the table. He then walked out of the kitchen, and noticed that Levi was fast asleep on the sofa, his head rested on Erwin’s jacket. Erwin wanted to shake Levi to wake him up, but then he remembered the rough day they’d been through, and tossed the idea away. He sat down on the little space left on the sofa, and lit a cigarette.

“You could’ve woken me up.”

“Oh my, sorry.” Levi sat up and pulled the cigarette out of Erwin’s mouth and put it in his own. “Dinner’s ready, by the way.”

“Thank you.” Levi walked over to the dining table, put the cigarette down, sat on an end, and started eating. Erwin sat on the other end, waiting for Levi to eat before he started eating.

“Not bad,” Levi said. “You’re used to cooking, aren’t you?”

“Not really, but I do enjoy it.”

After that, the two were silent.

Erwin wanted to ask about a certain topic, but he wasn’t putting his hopes high – Levi would probably just tell him to stop, or even scold him. At least that’s how it’s always been…

“…can you please tell me more about Edward?”

The words just slipped out of his mouth without his consent. Levi stopped eating, and turned to look at Erwin.

“I figured you’d ask again,” he said calmly. “What do you want to ask?”

“Sorry for being impolite.” Erwin somehow had a feeling that he shouldn’t talk about this matter after all…

“…what did they tell you?”

“They said you killed him.”

Levi fell silent again and continued eating. Erwin almost felt guilty to have said so – he probably had angered Levi.

“So what do you think about that?” Levi asked. “You really believe what they said?”

“Well, I don’t think it’s true, that’s why I’m asking you.”

Levi chuckled upon hearing that.

“I can’t dictate your interpretation,” he said as he unbuttoned his jacket. “You can think whatever you want.”

“But that wouldn’t help my case,” Erwin insisted. “Can you please tell me, if it’s true or not?”

Silence took over again. Levi kept unbuttoning his jacket, took off his cravat, and proceeded to take off his shirt. Erwin merely remained silent and stared, waiting for an answer.

“So do you want me to kill you too?”

“If you have a clear reason and you wish for it, I’ll even shoot myself.”

Levi smiled – sadness in his eyes – as he stood up and walked over to Erwin. Levi sat on Erwin’s lap, his bare chest showing, and very gently, he caressed Erwin’s hair and landed a kiss on his lips.

“You careless, careless man, Erwin,” Levi whispered. “Your carelessness is gonna kill you one day.”

~•~

Erwin watched from the viewing deck as the grey planes manoeuvred in the sky. It was just a normal survey flight, and Erwin and Mike were exempt from it as they just went to survey last time. Mike was in the control room, but he was lazing around as well, as he was drinking some beer.

_“Control, we’re coming down in 5 minutes.”_

“Roger that,” Mike said as he glanced at the radar – everything was clear. “Everything clear, you can go down now, Vulture.”

Mike walked out of the control room and slapped Erwin on the back.

“I think I’m gonna need to teach you how to write reports Levi-style,” Mike said with a sigh. “Or else I’ll be the one doing all the work. Maybe if I pass some skills unto you, I’ll be able to get more time with my Nana.”

“Well, other than your personal reasons, I need to know how to write a report too,” Erwin answered. “So are we going to start now or…”

_“Control tower, control tower! A group of Titans coming!”_

Mike rushed back into the control tower, followed by Erwin. Now there were a bunch of red dots getting closer towards the two white dots near the base.

“Drive them away somehow, Vulture!” Mike said onto the microphone. “Erwin, take over, I’ll tell Levi about this. We might have to back them up.”  
“Then won’t it be better for me to go to my plane or something?”

Mike had already gone too far to answer. Erwin quickly took the headphones and continued watching the radar.

_“Control tower, there are too many of them!”_

“Please hang on, we’ll back you up,” Erwin said. “Raptor is coming to help you.”

Erwin could see Mike and Levi rush out from the office below him. Mike jumped onto his own plane, meanwhile Levi jumped onto Erwin’s. That means Erwin wouldn’t get to fly that day.

_“Control tower, Falcon reporting.” “Control tower, Eagle reporting.”_

“Clear, you guys can go.”

_“It’s… the Teacher!”_

“The Teacher?”

The two planes had now taken off, soaring up high in the sky. Erwin watched two more white dots appeared on the radar among the red dots.

 _“_ _The black jaguar, I see it! It's...”_

And suddenly one of the white dots disappeared from the screen.

“Vulture,” Erwin called through the microphone. “Vulture, this is control tower, over. Do you hear me?”

There was no answer.

“Repeat, Vulture, this is control tower...”

“ _I'm giving chase,”_ he could hear Levi said. _“You guys go back to base or something.”_

 _“_ _Oi, Levi, you're crazy! We retreat now!”_

 _“_ _It's suicide, corporal!”_

Levi had already flown away from the rest of the squad, ignoring the others' warning.

“Levi, this is control tower,” Erwin spoke again. “Please return to base, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone.”

 _“Fuck it, control tower, I’m going after him!”_ Mike shouted. _“Nightingale, go back to base!”_

_“It’s too dangerous to go alone, Falcon!”_

_“Well if he dies at least I’ll be there to pick his corpse!”_

“Nightingale, go back to base,” Erwin said. “Eagle, please return to base, it’s too dangerous.”

There was no answer.

_“I’m going after him, control tower. I’ll be back if I think it’s too dangerous. Nightingale, go back.”_

“Be careful, Falcon. Don’t go too far.”

~•~

Time crawled.

Erwin sighed as he looked at the clock again. It’s been three hours since he was forced to leave the control tower, and neither Mike nor Levi was to be heard from, according to what Moblit told them.

Petra herself had been standing by the window since she got back. The sky had been dark, and cumulonimbus clouds had gathered in the sky. Flying in this weather would be very risky as visibility would be very low, if not zero.

The door suddenly flew open, and Erwin and Petra quickly turned.

Mike walked in and threw himself on the couch. He sighed as he covered his eyes with his arm, and before Erwin or Petra could say anything, he spoke,

“It was the teacher,” he said with a tone of resignation in his voice. “I tailed them until they were in the clouds, and then I lost them. I’m pretty sure I heard gunshots and all that. I couldn’t go on since I could barely see anything at that point, so I rushed back. Shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t blame yourself for that, Mike.”

“Nobody ever met the teacher and made it back alive.”

The three fell silent. Mike was now staring at the ceiling; Petra was still looking out of the window, Erwin staring down at his hand.

Inevitably, the first drops of rain fell to the ground.

“Who’s the Teacher?”

“The Titans’ best pilot,” Petra answered. “Nobody had ever faced him and lived to tell the tale. Corporal’s our best pilot, but who knows how it’ll turn out.”

“Why is Levi so obsessed with him then?”

“You can ask him when he comes back.”

“If he comes back,” Mike corrected. “Not trying to sound pessimistic here, but that’s how it is, isn’t it.”

~•~

Rain was pouring down heavily from the sky.

Nanaba turned the channel seeker back and forth, trying to find a frequency that didn’t sound creaky because of the rain, but after a few more tries, she turned off the radio and continued to look around the grass field she was on.

Earlier – probably an hour ago – she heard a loud crash, loud enough to wake her from her nap. She looked around the house, trying to see what had caused it, and although she didn’t find anything strange, she could see a trail of black smokes not far away from her house. She immediately started her car and headed out to see if another plane had crashed on the field near her house while silently praying that it wasn’t Mike’s.

She finally saw a structure that looked like the tail of a plane from afar. From the number on it, she could tell that it wasn’t Mike’s. She accelerated her car until there was no road left for her car before she got out and started running towards the structure.

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

 

The voice woke him up.

Levi let out a sigh and slowly opened his eyes. He had no idea what happened – he just knew that he was sitting on a chair, that it was dark around him, and wet, too.

_“Is anybody there?!”_

He could hear the voice coming from somewhere distant – it probably was just in his head, it probably was real, he didn’t care. He tried to move his body, and came to realize that his body felt so heavy, so he sighed again. His head was resting against something hard, and through his blurry vision he could see that he was sitting in a small space. He wanted to sit up and look around, but his body felt so weak, and his head hurt like hell. He could only tell that he was sitting in the middle of a grass field at night.

Finally a shadow appeared. He couldn’t recognize it at first, but after the shadow moved closer, he realized that it was the girl Mike always hung out with.

“Levi, you okay?”

“The fuck… happened here…”

“You made a crash landing,” she answered. “I’ll take off your seatbelts first, alright? How do you feel? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“Get… out…”

He felt the straps around his body came loose. “What were you doing, fighting? Your plane’s a mess. So many gunshots, man. Come on, I’m taking you back to the base.”

“Leave me… alone…”

“What? Of course I can’t!” she objected. “You want me to leave you here? I know you won’t die, but you’re gonna starve, maybe catch a cold, and since you won’t die, that’ll be painful, Levi.”

“Are you fucking deaf or something I said get out, of, here!”

Nanaba stepped back when Levi started shouting at her. Even he had no idea where he got the power to shout from, but seems like it drove her away, so good. He panted for a few seconds, anger visible in his eyes, and then he sighed again and closed his eyes.

“Yeah, good,” he said. “Get out. I want to sleep.”

“Well then let me take you back to the base and you can sleep in your bed, it’ll be a lot warmer.”

“God can’t you just leave me to die or something!”

“Well…” She shrugged. “Sorry to remind you that you won’t, Levi. Unless someone finds you and shoots you.”

“Then shoot me right here right now! I can even give you my gun to do it!”

“You know I’m not a person who can randomly shoot someone with no reason.”

“You have a reason!” Levi got up from his seat and grabbed her shoulders. “I’m a murderer! Now it’s my turn to be killed, now kill me – shoot me, stab me, anything! I’m tired of living!”

“You have a daughter to take care of, Levi, are you going to leave her and…”

“Fuck everything!” he shouted. “You think it’s fun, living like this?!

“Imagine if Mike died, and a week later you meet him again, and this guy, he has the same exact face, same exact voice, same exact behaviour, but he’s not Mike! Can you imagine living like that? And you know the worst part?! He doesn’t remember you! Not at all! You really think that’s fun?!”

“Well, no, that’s not, frankly,” she answered calmly. “But at least he’s alive.”

“But he’s not Mike! He was, but is not!”

“I’m ready to face that,” she answered as she pulled him out of the plane. “And you’re a man, Levi. Come on. I’ve met him so many times and I’m pretty much fine with it, so why aren’t you?”

“You don’t fucking understand! I…”

“I do know what you mean, I know why you’re screaming at my face, but let me take you back.”

“I don’t want to see him again! Leave me here! Leave me here!”

“You’re just being selfish, you know,” she continued as she circled his arm around her neck, and started to drag him away. “Imagine how he’d feel if you’re never found. Imagine how Isabel feels, how Mike feels, how everyone would feel.”

“I don’t fucking care! I’m tired of all this shit!”

“Come on, you’re not gonna die if I leave you here anyway, so let’s just go back and make everyone happy.”

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to go back! Leave me here!”

~•~

“Who's that?”

Petra, Erwin and Mike walked out of the building to find a green jeep parked in front of the building. Nanaba walked out and opened the back door.

“Mikey, Erwin!” she shouted. “Can you give me a hand?”

Mike and Erwin immediately ran over to her. Inside the car, Levi grabbed the head of the seat as support, and tried to sit up. Erwin crept into the car and rested Levi's head on his shoulder, and held Levi tight as he walked out.

“Erwin...”

“Petra!” Mike called. “Get Hanji, will you? I'll call the medics!”

Nanaba rushed to the door and opened it for Erwin, who was carrying Levi. Once they were in, Erwin laid Levi on the couch, then took off his brown jacket and covered Levi's body with it. Levi looked around, confused, before his eyes fell on Erwin. Erwin smiled gently and took Levi's hands in his own.

“You scared Mike to death.”

“Sorry,” Levi muttered. “You all must be worried.”

“Goodness, Levi!” Hanji walked into the room with a first-aid kit and a blanket. “I was just getting ready to call funeral services! You okay?”

“He crashed near my place,” Nanaba explained. “He could talk to me just fine, so I guess we've nothing to worry about. Maybe hypothermia.”

“I'll take care of him now, Erwin,” Hanji said. “You can go back. I think Mike's already gone back to your room.”

“Yes...”

However, when Erwin stood up, he felt something weighing his right arm down. Erwin turned to look, and noticed that Levi was pulling his sleeve.

“Got any cigarette...?”

Erwin turned to Hanji, as if asking for permission, and Hanji gave a nod. Erwin took out a cigarette from his pocket and placed it on Levi's mouth, but before Erwin could, Levi muttered,

“...tell everyone I'm sorry for all the trouble.”

Hanji then covered Levi's body with the blanket she brought and sighed in relief. Levi had fallen asleep without even touching the cigarette he asked for.

“Well, what can we do about it, he's just a kid,” Nanaba sighed. “He was in a pretty bad shape when I found him, too. This way, he’s just being self-destructive… By the way, Hanji, the plane's still there if you want it back.”

“We'll do it tomorrow. Wanna see Mike before you head back?”

“Let's see if I can find him,” Nanaba said as she walked out. “Good night, you two.”

Only Hanji and Erwin were left after that, with Levi, who was sleeping soundly. Even in his sleep, his innocent face looked like something had been troubling him for a lifetime.

“You still have work tomorrow, Erwin. Go to sleep.”

“Miss Zoe,” Erwin said. “Can you please tell me about Isabel?”

“Yea, I know, she's nothing like Levi at all, is she,” Hanji replied. “I guess opposites attract. Levi's always nice to Isabel, you know.”

“Yes, I know, but other than that, is she...”

“Yeah, oh my, look at the time!” Hanji stood up and smiled. “You'd better go to sleep, Erwin!”

~•~

A week later.

Mike, Petra, and Erwin were standing in front of Levi’s desk. Meanwhile, Levi was writing something on his black notebook, without sparing the three any attention.

They had come because Levi called them, although he didn’t state why they were called. Petra was worried at first, but after seeing Mike and Erwin in the hallway, they knew that something must be up. Yet now, they were just standing in front of Levi’s desk, doing nothing.

Erwin quietly remembered his first day on the base when he just stood there like a retard. Well, at least he wasn’t alone this time.

“So,” Levi said as he took his cup of tea. “We’re having a party tonight.”

“Pardon?” “A party, sir?” “Eh?”

Levi chuckled upon seeing their reactions.

“Yeah, a party,” he said. “With fancy food and drinks and maybe balloons. Well, maybe not that fancy, but you have an idea, right?”

“Like the one we went to, Levi?” Mike asked, and Levi gave a nod. Mike sighed as he looked away.

“You can’t drag me to one,” Mike pleaded as he walked closer to Levi’s desk. “I’ll kneel right here right now and kiss your shoes as long as you don’t…”

“The very good news is that it’ll be here,” Levi said calmly. “So Mike, tell Nanaba you’re not going to her place tonight.”

“Shitttttt”

“Um, sorry, Levi,” Erwin cut. “Why a party, all of sudden?”

“They’re introducing you folks to the brats from base 104,” Levi answered. “So I’m not sure, maybe to get you guys acquainted to each other. But knowing you guys, I don’t think you guys will really get acquainted unless there’s bloodshed.”

“Base 104?”

“They’re planning a big attack on Titans’ base, and this base happens to be the third closest to the base in question. So those brats will be here until the whole plan is carried out. It’ll get noisy.

“So, I know it’s gonna suck, but please behave,” Levi concluded. “I have to talk to Colonel Shardis from that base too. No bloodshed. You’re all dismissed except for Erwin.”

Erwin seemed to be startled. “Me?”

“Shouldn’t take long,” Levi said. Mike and Petra walked out of the room, and Mike actually even dared to smile as he left.

So once again Erwin and Levi were alone in the room – just like on the first day Erwin arrived on the base. Levi kept writing things down in his notebook without sparing any attention, and Erwin didn’t complain at all – he merely stood there, waiting.

It wasn’t until 15 minutes later that Levi finally closed his book and turned to Erwin.

“Erwin,” he addressed calmly. “Do you trust me?”

“Excuse me, sir?”

“On the first day you arrived here, you told me you only trust officers who smoke,” Levi said as he started playing with his pen. “So do I still look trustworthy to you now?”

“I don’t see why you wouldn’t, sir.”

“Very well then,” Levi said with a thin smile. “Don’t think too much about this meeting. I like to chat with my subordinates sometimes, you see. You’re excused.”

“Yes, sir.”

Erwin headed to the door, walked out, and closed the door with a click. Levi stared at the door for a while, then with a sigh, he lit a cigarette and started looking through some documents.

“Such a careless guy…”

~•~

The party was as bad as Mike made it seem to be, if not worse.

There were only few people there – twenty, probably? – the four of them included. Levi was busy talking to a bald old man; Petra seemed to have gotten some friends; Mike and Erwin were standing in a corner like two desperate bachelors. There were only bottles of beer put on a table, some sandwiches, burgers, and salad… nothing much.

Mike sniffed the air around him, then started to look at the strangers in the party. Meanwhile, Erwin just stood there, as if observing everyone there – maybe he wasn’t even observing.

“Let’s get out of here, Erwin,” Mike suggested. “Their burgers are worse than Annie’s, don’t you think?”

“If you’re that bored, then I guess we should go,” Erwin said. “I’m not sure there are anything outside though…”

“Sheesh, just get me out of here.” Mike circled his arm around Erwin’s shoulder, and they walked out. Seems like nobody noticed them leaving, but Erwin still had that strange feeling that someone was staring at him as he left.

Being outside probably made no difference though – there was still nothing to do, but at least nobody would annoy them out there.

Mike sat down on a bench, with Erwin next to him, and Erwin immediately lit a cigarette.

“Mike.”

“What is it, son.”

“How long do we have to stay here? Can’t we go back to our room?”

“We’re here in case Corporal Scary needs us,” Mike answered. “How long… I guess until he comes out and beats us up.”

“Shit, shouldn’t have come along.”

“Come on, Erwin, you know this is a lot better than staying in that party.”

They both fell silent again. Erwin finished his cigarette, tossed it away, and lit another. He placed the box in front of Mike, offering him a smoke, but Mike shook his head and sighed.

“This is equally boring.”

“Told you.”

That was when they noticed two more people walking out of the party. One of them was a girl with short black hair, and the other one was a red-haired girl eating a sandwich.

“Look, girls,” Mike said. “Get one for yourself, Erwin.”

“Don’t need one.”

“You can say that because you don’t know how it feels like to have a woman,” he said. “That black-haired one is kind of cute, right?”

“Not my kind of girl.”

“So what’s your kind like? Levi?”

“Well, he’s cute, I admit it.”

“That’s because he doesn’t grow up.”

The two girls walked over to them, and the black-haired girl looked at them intently, as if examining them.

“Is Erwin Smith still in the party?”

“Probably,” Erwin said, and he could see Mike smiling from the corner of his eye. The girl looked around, then turned to him again.

“Is he back in his room?”

“Probably.”

“Do you know what he looks like?”

“Um.”

It was silent for a while. Erwin looked as expressionless as always, and Mike no longer looked like he was trying not to laugh, and joined Erwin in making an expressionless face. The black-haired girl looked at them for a while, then sighed.

“Are you that Erwin?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t ask.”

“And I’m Mike Zacharias,” Mike cut. “Nice to meet you, girl.”

“I don’t care about you,” the black-haired girl said, but her friend’s eyes lit with excitement.

“Mikasa, you can’t just not care!” the red-haired girl exclaimed. “Mike, he once took down a whole squad of Titans alone!”

“Really?” Erwin asked, and he could see Mike smiling discreetly. “You didn’t tell me you’re that great, Mike.”

“You’ll be that great one day, Erwin,” Mike said as he patted Erwin’s back. “You’re my son, aren’t you. And you girls, you haven’t introduced yourselves.”

“I’m Mikasa Ackerman,” the black-haired girl said. “And this is Sasha Braus. We’ll be working together, so I hope we get along.” She turned back to her friend. “Sasha, come on, let’s find our room.”

Erwin spit out another cigarette as they left. Mike watched them leave, looked at Erwin for a while, then looked away again.

“Ackerman?”

“Probably coincidental.”

“Well I’ve never seen anyone else named Zacharias or Smith or Ral. Heck, why isn’t Isabel an Ackerman?”

“I guess we gotta save all those questions for Levi himself.”

“If he doesn’t kick us out the moment we ask, yeah.”

~•~

“Today we’re going to talk about your mission that you guys will carry out tomorrow.”

All the pilots were seated in the room, like a small class. Erwin and Mike had taken seats near the corner – it was Mike’s suggestion, so they could sleep (and hopefully not get caught) during the meeting.

“So here’s the map,” Levi said as a device projected a map to the screen behind him. He took a stick and pointed at a small black spot, “This is our base. And this…” He moved his stick to a big red spot in a white circle. “Is the Titans’ base. This white circle is where we predict they’ll notice us and start their counterattack.”

“So here’s the plan.” The bald man took over. “The ten of you will be two squads. There’ll be about six squads from the previous areas,” he pointed at two other black spots. “Here and here. And then we’ll go further, and we’ll have two more squads from this base,” he pointed at another spot. “That makes ten. We will refuel mid-air about 1700 miles away from the enemy’s base and on the place we’re refueling, a group of heavy bombers will join us. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” everyone answered in unison.

“And one more thing,” Levi suddenly cut. “As you all know, the Titans can sense us even outside this white circle. We might encounter heavy counterattack, so you know, just brace yourselves. Don’t shit yourself up there.”

“And with that said,” the bald man interrupted again. “I hope everyone rests well tonight. Tomorrow might be a long day.”

~•~

The runway was occupied with planes that morning. Levi stood by the viewing balcony, holding his notebook in hand. Some mechanics were running around, busy making sure that the planes were functioning well and wouldn’t suddenly stop working up there. That aside, everything had been going well, and there shouldn’t be any problems…

“Alright, ready for take off!”

The roar of machines filled the space, almost deafening. The planes started to move into their positions; the pilots inside were busy doing final checks from the cockpit. Three red lights on a board lit up, three more lights under it lit up,

“For the wings of freedom.”

Three green lights turned on, and there was a deafening roar and strong winds blew as the planes took off. Levi watched the planes gradually shrink from big grey machines to small dots in the sky.

They were airborne.

Erwin checked the controls of his plane, and after making sure that everything seemed to be normal, he looked at the radar. He could see many little dots around a pack of dots – must be the squad from neighboring bases. Erwin looked out to the plane on his left, and saw Petra, also checking out her controls.

_“Squad Zeta, Squad Theta, this is Alpha, over.”_

_“Zeta, over.” “Theta, over.”_

_“Very well,”_ a robotic voice said. _“Two more squads are going to join us very soon. We’re currently 6500 miles away from the enemy’s base. We’re expecting counterattack around 1000 miles away from the base. Please keep flying at this altitude. If anybody sees anything strange, please report it immediately.”_

Everything was pretty much normal after that. Nothing weird, nothing out of place – well, hopefully everything that starts well would end well too.

_“We’re now 2600 miles away from the enemy’s base. Is everything clear?”_

_“Sir, a Titan approaching, two o’clock!”_

Erwin turned to look at the radar, and noticed a few red dots coming to them.

_“Permission to engage, sir?”  
“Granted.”_

Erwin pulled a lever to open fire, and he could immediately see a pack of red planes in front of him. He shot one of the planes while effectively dodging the bullets from another Titan plane. At this point everybody was fighting intensely – the sky was filled with black smokes, planes were falling into the seas.

 _“Everyone, return to base,”_ the robotic voice suddenly called amidst the chaos. _“The operation has failed, we’ll return to base. Repeat, return to base.”_

~•~

Half of the room was empty that night.

Mike and Erwin still chose the seat in the corner. Petra was nowhere to be found. Mikasa was sitting alone too, her red-haired friend nowhere to be found.

“I suppose they noticed the increase of activity,” the bald man said. “So they were able to prepare some counterattack. And while we’re at that, a pretty tough one too…”

Levi remained silent – either he didn’t really care about the discussion, or something else was in his mind.

“So, colonel.” Mikasa suddenly raised her hand. “There was this one pilot who was very skilled – he shot down Sasha at point-blank range.”

“Now that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of something like that,” the bald man said, but Levi remained unmoved.

“Basically…” She stretched out both of her hands and started moving them around. “Let’s say this is Sasha, and this is the Titan pilot, he was able to force Sasha to tilt vertically, and he just sort of pitted her and shot.”

“Hey, Erwin,” Mike whispered. “I heard of this new place south of here. Let’s check it out later.”

“Fine.”

“This pilot… I think I saw a black jaguar painted on the body of his plane.”

~•~

The city was strangely empty.

Mike and Erwin were sitting in a tram that was going through the city. It was empty everywhere around them, like a ghost town. The streetlights were on, however there doesn’t seem to be any activity in the buildings and nobody was on the streets or on the tram.

“This place is like a ghost town,” Mike commented. “Are all the stores closed? It’s 8 pm, come on, the night is starting.”

The tram stopped in front of a small platform, and both of them walked out. Mike looked at the station list above his head, while Erwin looked around to the buildings around him. Most of them had no lamps lit and there seemed to be no activity inside too – Erwin then took out his pocket watch to learn that it’s only ten past eight.

“Well, Mike, since this is your genius idea,” Erwin said. “What should we do now? Go back?”

“I don’t know, son,” Mike answered with a sigh. “But we’ve come all the way here, I suppose we should go take a walk around. Maybe we’ll find a place where we can drink?”

“Sounds pretty good.”

The two off them walked off the platform, into the dark streets. Seems like they had landed in the darkest alley that night, and although the doors around them said things like ‘bar’ or ‘restaurant’, none of them were open. Mike lit a cigarette and offered one to Mike, who refused, as usual.

“You’re shortening your lifespan by smoking, son.”

“Well, I’ll be glad if I am.”

They continued walking in silence for a while while they both looked around for anything that might be interesting. A few cigarettes later, they both saw something in the faraway.

“You see that building with a shiny ball, son?”

“Yeah.”

It was a tall building with a shiny yellow sphere on top. Of course the building stood up – it was the only building they’d seen that had some lights on.

“Let’s go and see what’s there,” Mike suggested. “And if nothing’s interesting there, I’m pretty sure we can at least get a drink.”

That was when a car suddenly halted next to Erwin. The window opened, and they could see Levi sitting behind the wheel.

“Are you two going somewhere?”

“Well, we were just walking around, really,” Mike said with a smile. “We thought we’re going to check out that place with a ball over there.”

“I can give you a ride,” Levi said. “It’s just a place where people play games though. Cards, maybe bowling, shit like that. You guys sure it’s your thing?”

“Well, who knows? We can give it a shot,” Mike said. “Are you up for it, Erwin?”

“I suppose we can try…”

“Then I suppose you can get into the car and we’ll go there,” Levi said. “Hurry up, we don’t have all night.”

~•~

Levi took the ball and stared at the 10 beautifully arranged bowling pins a few metres in front of him.

Mike and Erwin were sitting in a booth behind Levi, watching him play.

Levi took a firm step, swung his hand to the back, then flung the ball forwards. The ball rolled on the wooden floor, and rolled, and rolled, and rolled… and hit the pin.

Seven went down, three were left.

“You can do it, Levi!” Mike cheered as Levi took another ball. He aimed at the pins again, swung his arm to the back and flung the ball. The ball rolled and rolled and rolled, and went straight into the darkness. Levi walked to the booth, sat down next to Erwin, and took a cigarette.

“Your turn, Erwin.”

“But I’m not good at…”

“You chipped in some money to play too, so make use of it. Mike, you go after Erwin.”

Erwin took a red ball, and flung it towards the pins. The ball rolled and rolled and hit the pins, striking all ten of them down simultaneously. Erwin walked back to the booth and sat in his spot again as Mike stood up to take a ball. He aimed at the pins, swung his arms backwards before he flung the ball towards the pins, and as the ball rolled into the darkness, the ten pins fell along with it.

“Well, I guess I’m still pretty good at this,” Mike said as he sat down. “Levi, you wanna go again?”

“I’m kind of tired after listening to Shardis,” Levi sighed. “What about you play with Erwin, and I’ll treat the winner to some beer.”

“Sounds pretty good,” Mike said. “Come on, Erwin, go again.”

“Ayy, Mikey!”

In less than a second, Nanaba was sitting next to Mike, kissing him on the cheek. Mike smiled at the pleasant surprise and messed her hair lovingly. Erwin remained quiet as he drank some coke, while Levi sighed.

“Hey, Nanababe,” Mike greeted. “Wasn’t expecting you here.”

“Greger’s visiting and he wants to go bowling… so I thought I’ll watch him to make sure he doesn’t drink too much.” She turned to look at Levi and Erwin. “By the way, I’m sorry about the mission.”

“Get a room, you two,” Levi groaned disapprovingly. “Mike I’m talking to you.”

“Alright, we’ll leave, we’ll leave. Let’s go see Greger, Nana.”

“Levi, you won’t get a girl if you’re so stiff~”

Levi sighed in relief once they left. Erwin remained silent for a while, silently letting Levi decide what they should do next. Levi didn’t seem to be interested in bowling; maybe he’d just decide to go back to the base…

“I feel like drinking,” Levi said. “I know a bar not too far away from here. Come with me, Erwin.”

~•~

Levi poured some wine into a glass and drunk everything down in a gulp. Erwin watched him, concern in his eyes.

“Levi, I’m not sure whether you should drink that much…”

“Hey, ‘not sure whether you should drink that much’,” Levi said with a soft chuckle. “What about you drink some more too~”

“If you’re drunk, I have to drive you home, so I can’t drink.”

“That’s no fun. I’m not a bad drinker, you know.” Levi whined and pouted, but then laughed as he poured some more wine. He put the empty bottle aside, and a waiter came to replace the bottle.

“On the day you were shot down, Levi,” Erwin begun. “What happened?”

Erwin swore Levi looked five times more sober the moment he finished the question.

“Well, you know what happened. I was shot down.”

“But you’re not the kind of person who gets shot down that easily, Levi.”

“Why not?”

“I heard of this guy called the Teacher, with the black jaguar marking on his plane,” Erwin said, and he could see a very subtle change of expression on Levi’s face. Perhaps he wasn’t too comfortable with this topic? “Who is he?”

“Well… it’s kind of impossible for you to not hear about the Teacher, huh,” Levi sighed. “Simply put, he’s the Titans’ best pilot. But he was once with Survey Corps too.”

“But you talk about him with so much respect.”

“Well, he was my superior officer.”

“Why did he move to the Titans?”

“Shit happened and he moved.”

“And if you can shoot him down, what advantage will you get? Like… change your fate or something? Or so you can be mankind’s strongest?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Levi said. “Well, nobody can shoot him down.”

“Why not?”

Erwin fell silent. Levi took a cigarette, lit it, then put it into his mouth. He then turned to look at Erwin – a dark, serious face.

“Who do you think is the real enemy? And what are we fighting for? Survey Corps, Titans, why are we constantly fighting?”

“Think about it, our job is the weirdest in the world, and now that you mention it, it does seem to be pointless.”

“That’s to maintain peace. This probably will sound weird to you, but unless there’s a war going on out there, people will forget the importance of peace. Reading history books isn’t enough, because history always repeats. Unless there’s an actual war where people are dying, peace would be forgotten.

“So, there’s no real purpose, you see,” Levi said as he put his cigarette on an ashtray. “Roughly put, it’s like a game… one that isn’t supposed to end. And on a game, there’s always this one enemy nobody can beat.”

“And it’s the teacher?”

“And that’s why we can kill and be killed legally.”

Both of them then fell silent. Levi drank some more wine, then sighed as he touched his throbbing forehead.

“Let’s go back, Levi,” Erwin said with concern. “Do you have a headache or something? Are you okay?”

“My head feels funny, that’s all,” Levi said as he stood up. “I can walk, look…”

“Don’t force yourself,” Erwin said. “I’ll pay, and then let’s get back to your car.”

~•~

Despite Levi trying to convince Erwin that he wasn’t a bad drinker earlier, Erwin still had to help him walk as they slowly move from the bar to Levi’s car. Levi was very heavy and if Erwin was to let Levi go, Levi would probably fall on his face on the road.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and Erwin noticed that a car was running towards them. He dragged Levi to the side of the road, but instead, Levi released his grip from Erwin and fell on the ground. Fortunately the driver saw Levi seconds before a fatal accident could happen.

“Oi, punk! If you’re drunk, go home!”

Levi tried to stand up again, anger burning in his eyes, but Erwin quickly grabbed his arms and pulled him away.

“Let go!” Levi rebelled, but Erwin’s grip was too strong. Levi tried to brush Erwin off again, in vain, and at last he struck Erwin’s shoulder with his elbow. Erwin hissed in pain, and finally let Levi go.

“Had you fucking let go of me you wouldn’t get hurt!”

“Levi, it’s dangerous,” Erwin said. “I can’t just leave you wandering around here while you’re drunk, you might get killed…”

“Well wouldn’t it be good if I get killed!”

“Levi.” Erwin stood up and tried to grab Levi again. “Let’s go back now.”

“No! I said leave me alone!”

“Levi, don’t do this.” Erwin grabbed Levi’s left arm and pulled him up, and that was when he noticed a gun pressed to the back of his head.

“Do you want me to kill you?” Levi asked. “Or what about you do me a favour and kill me instead?”

Levi wrapped his arms around Erwin and pulled him close.

“Or else nothing’s going to change for us,” Levi sobbed. “I don’t want this anymore, Erwin, I…”

“Levi, dear.” Erwin ran a hand through Levi’s hair as he felt Levi sob on his shoulders. “Don’t cry, my dear.”

“I hate this,” Levi sobbed. “I don’t want to kill you again, Erwin, I hate seeing you die again, I… I…”

“Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Nothing’s going to be fine.” Levi removed the gun from Erwin’s head and put it in Erwin’s hands. “Kill me!” He directed Erwin’s hand so that the gun was aimed at his own head. “Kill me now!”

“Levi, I can’t.”

“You have to! Just pull the damn trigger! Kill me!”

“Levi.” Erwin released his hand from Levi’s grip, threw the gun away, and it fell on the ground helplessly. Levi tried to take it again, but Erwin caught him, and held him tight.

“Let go!” Levi sobbed desperately. “If you don’t want to do it, I can do it myself! You think I can’t shoot my own head?!”

“Levi, dear,” he whispered. “Don’t do this to yourself. Please.”

“Why would you care anyway! I’m a murderer! Can’t you just shut up and let me die!” Levi was screaming at the top of his lungs. “Let me die! Just let me! Die!”

~•~

Morning had dawned.

Erwin barely slept the previous night. His head was filled with so many thoughts that kept him from sleeping.

What Levi said last night, what little he knew, and what the truth might be.

Levi fell asleep on their way back, and pretty much slept through the night soundly. He might wake up later without any memory of what happened last night – well, that’d be good. Erwin carried Levi out of the car to his bed and kissed his forehead, then put the gun back to his office – hopefully Levi hadn’t found it and decided to do anything creative with it.

Mike hadn’t returned yet (as usual), and Erwin sure wished he could have someone to talk to about what happened.

He looked at his pocket watch. Last time he checked, it was 6.35, now it was 7. Yet it felt like he’d been lying on his bed for five years.

He stood up, grabbed his jacket, and walked out of the room. If he couldn’t sleep might as well go to the dining room and find something to eat.

He was greeted by a familiar figure in the dining room.

“Good morning.”

“Morning…” It was a white-haired man, reading the newspaper. Erwin looked at him for a while – Erwin swore he knew someone who looked like that, sounded like that, but shouldn’t be alive…

“I’m Farrel Carson,” the white-haired man said.

“Erwin Smith,” Erwin replied. “You’re new here, aren’t you? Have you met with the Corporal yet?”

“The Corporal?”

“I think you’ll need to see him,” Erwin said. “I can go there with you, if you like.”

“That sounds nice, thank you. By the way, how many people are stationed here?”

“Well, I think… eight, including you and the corporal.”

“I see.” Farrel closed the newspaper he was reading, folded it in half, then in quarters, then pressed his fingers along the edges before finally flattening the newspaper. The headlines read, “Are the Titans Planning Something?”

The two of them walked out of the dining room, and arrived in the hallway. Erwin could faintly remember that morning when Levi was standing there, and Erwin lit him a cigarette. They walked up a flight of stairs, and after a bit more walking, arrived in front of a door.

“Levi,” Erwin called as he knocked the door. “Are you there, Levi?”

“What?”  
Erwin felt strangely relieved upon hearing the voice. “We’ve got a new member here, is he supposed to report to you?”

“Carson? Come in.”

“There you go,” Erwin whispered as he opened the door. “You’re gonna want to call him Corporal Ackerman.”

“Thanks,” Farrel whispered back as he walked into the room and closed it. Erwin couldn’t see it very clearly, but he was pretty sure he saw Levi sitting behind his desk as usual. Things were probably fine now…

“Erwin.”

He turned to the voice that just called him, and found Mikasa standing next to him.

“Do you have a minute?”

~•~

Erwin emptied a sachet of coffee into a mug and poured some hot water. Mikasa was sitting on a chair by the window, staring out.

“What is it?”

“This had been bothering me for quite a while,” she started. “Do you ever just look at yourself and think, ‘why am I here?’”

“Not really.”

“How long have you been stationed here?”

“Don’t know.”

“How long have you been a pilot? How did you join Survey Corps, and why?”

“Are you planning to talk about this or are you going to talk about something else?”

“I’m asking you because I expect an answer.”

“Sorry, I don’t really keep track of everything.”

“What do you think of the present, in accordance to your memories from the past? What happened yesterday, or last week, or last year? I bet you can’t remember. You lost track of time, and force yourself to focus on the present, am I right?”

“Who knows? I can’t say you’re wrong though.”

“Kildrens were developed by Survey Corps. An experiment failed, resulting in humans like you, and thus you guys got the name.”

“Are you trying to imply that you’re not a Kildren?”

Mikasa sighed. “Don’t know. Kildrens are humans that don’t age, don’t die. Do you remember what you were like as a kid? Do you think about it?”

“Not really.”

“Sometimes I do,” she said. “I try to think about what kind of childhood I had, how my parents treated me, what school I attended, who were my friends. But I couldn’t remember anything – it’s always the same memories of my childhood. And it occurred to me – what if I never grew up after all?”

Both of them fell silent. Erwin finished his coffee, while Mikasa still sat by the window, looking out.

“Can I ask something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Is Levi someone you knew?” Erwin asked. “Why are you both Ackermans? Is it coincidental or are you guys related in any way?”

Mikasa’s expression turned to one of disgust. “I never knew him until I got here.”

~•~

Mike was lying on his bed when Erwin entered his room. Erwin climbed up to the top bunk to see if Mike was asleep to find that Mike was reading a book.

“Hey, Erwin,” Mike greeted. He scooched to the outer side, then patted the empty space. Erwin lay down, and turned to look at the book Mike was reading.

“What’s that?”

“Greger gave it to me,” Mike answered. “He’s Nanaba’s little brother, by the way. He’s supposed to go to university on another city, but he comes back every once in a while. He’s leaving tomorrow, so tonight Nanaba and I are gonna eat with him at Leonhardt’s.”

“I see.”

“Where were you?”

“There’s a new guy,” Erwin said. “His name’s Farrel. I brought him to Levi, and then I had a chat with Mikasa. The rest of it was Hanji and Isabel dragging me around. Where were you last night?”

“Well, bowled for a few more rounds, and then we went to drink.”

Mike closed his book, put it aside, and turned to Erwin.

“Something happened last night?”

“No, nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Mike said as he booped Erwin’s nose, and Erwin giggled. “Nothing happened last night? Really?”

“Nothing concerning the fate of the masses.”

Mike stared at Erwin for a while, sniffed the air, and then sighed.

“You don’t have to tell.”

“…sorry.”

“Well…” Mike sat up, and climbed down his bunk. “I gotta go now. Do you want to come along, Erwin?”

“It’s fine, I’ll stay here,” Erwin said as he took the book Mike read – the title said “Alcohol Drinks Throughout History”. “If you don’t mind, I’ll read this.”

“You sure you want to stay here?”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Mike looked up to Erwin, concern in his eyes. Something felt out of place, and he wanted to make sure Erwin didn’t get involved…

“Erwin, come with me.”

“I’ll be fine here,” Erwin replied. “Isabel’s been asking me to play tag with her and Bean, I’m kind of tired. I think I’ll take a nap.”

“Erwin.”

“I’ll take a nap, then go to Leonhardt’s. Maybe around six or seven. You guys will still be there, right?”

“…promise me you’ll come.”

“Unless something comes up, I guess.”

“And if something comes up, call me.”

“Alright.”

Mike wore his jacket and walked to the door. He took another glance, and saw Erwin still lying on his bed, reading the book. He still had doubts about what might happen that night and thought about staying at the base, but Erwin told him everything would be fine…

“…watch your back tonight, Erwin.”

~•~

Levi was working on some documents about Farrel Carson in his office when someone knocked on the door. He took off his glasses and looked at the door – who could it be? He had no memories of summoning someone to come to his room, and there shouldn’t be any reports to submit.

“Enter.”

A short black-haired girl walked into the room, one of her hands behind her back. She closed the door without turning away from Levi, then walked to his desk. He quickly found it strange that she would hide a hand behind her back, and took a pen in his hand.

“Mikasa,” he greeted. “What brings you here today? I don’t think I called you.”

“You didn’t, sir.” She stood a few steps in front of his desk, and he found it really odd – usually people who come into his room would stand at least a step away from his desk. Was she hiding something?

“What brings you here, then?”

“I just wanted to ask a few questions, if you don’t mind, sir.”

“Sure.” Her hand was still hidden behind her back. “What is it about?”

The next second he could see a gun aimed at his face.

“…now that is polite of you.”

“Tell me,” she said. “The truth about Kildrens.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Levi opened a drawer under his desk casually and placed his pen.

“You’re a Kildren too, aren’t you? Tell me everything about it.”

“What makes you think I’m a Kildren?” Levi held his gun in hand, but didn’t take it out yet. “If it’s because I’m short, then sorry, I want you out of here.”

“There’s no way you’re not one.”

“Baseless accusation.”

“Even if you’re not one, you should know more about them than I do.”

“Well, humans don’t have to know everything about humans.”

“Just hurry up and tell me!”

“That’s not how you talk to your superior, Mikasa.” He stood up and sat on his desk, his gun in hand. He could see Mikasa’s expression change slightly upon seeing the gun, and her hand was trembling.

“If you’re not going to tell me anything I’ll shoot!”

“…feel free.”

 

Erwin was abruptly woken up by the sound of a gun coming from above. Without a second thought, he rushed out of his room and rushed upstairs.

 

“Levi!”

Mikasa and Levi remained unmoved when Erwin barged into the room. One of the windows behind Levi’s desk was broken, and Mikasa was aiming her gun at Levi.

“Mikasa.” He walked over to her and grabbed her hand. “Mikasa, let go of this thing.”

“But Erwin…!”

“Look, I know what probably happened,” he said. “But Levi is as clueless as we are. You can’t get an answer out of him. And what good will happen if you shoot him?”

“I demand to know the truth!”

“The truth won’t appear if you shoot him.”

Mikasa turned to Erwin, confusion in her face. Erwin was still holding her hand, trying to make her let go of the gun.

“Killing him won’t help with anything.”

“Erwin, you don’t get it!” she shouted. “This bastard…”

“I know, I know. But doesn’t mean you can shoot him. If you want him to die that badly, you can give me the gun and I’ll shoot him.”

“That’s a fine idea.”

Mikasa turned to look at Levi, then to Erwin. They both seemed to be serious with what they said, but…

“…shit.”

She let go of the gun with a sigh, then turned and walked to the door.

“If you want to die so badly, go die!”

The door slammed shut. Erwin sighed in relief as he took out the magazine out of the gun he was holding, and turned to Levi with a smile.

“Well, I thought it was something more serious…”

That was when he noticed that Levi was holding his gun too.

“And here I thought you’d aim the gun at me and pull the trigger,” Levi sighed. “Foolish of me. You’re too kind to do that.”

“Why would I…”

“But, because of your decision to not shoot me, now I’m going to shoot you.” He aimed his gun to Erwin as he stood up.

“Why do you want to shoot me?” Erwin asked. “I thought nothing’s going to change if you shoot me.”

“I don’t know.” Tears were forming in Levi’s eyes. “I don’t know. I just thought I should shoot you, that’s all.”

“You shot Edward Turner, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“He asked you to?”

“Yes.”

“Did you love him?”

“I do.

“But he knew,” Levi said with his coarse voice. “He knew it’s inevitable.”

“It’s not.”

“Shoot me!” Levi suddenly screamed. “Why do you like to die so much, huh? If you like to die, don’t drag me into it!”

“Levi…” Erwin walked to Levi, but was brushed off.

“Why wouldn’t you shoot me?” Levi asked, his voice strangely calm. “I shot you. So many times. And if you don’t shoot me, I’ll keep shooting you. Forever, and ever, until someone shoots me.”

“You don't have to shoot me and I don’t have to shoot you,” Erwin said. “If you die, you’re just running away.”

“Well I want to die!” Levi screamed, louder than ever. “I want to run away! I’m tired of all this shit!”

“Levi.”

“I love you! Why did I kill you? Why must I kill you? Why do you keep dying so many times? I don’t want to see you die again, you think it’s fun, huh?!”

Levi aimed the gun at his own head.

“Well if you don’t want to shoot me I sure as hell can shoot my own head!”

“You can’t die, Levi.” Erwin walked to Levi and grabbed his hand. “You can’t die now. Don’t do this.”

“Then what am I supposed to do, bastard!”

“Live on.” Erwin took the gun from Levi and held him close. “Live on, until you find a way to change things.”

“But nothing’s going to change! Nothing’s ever going to change, you fool!”

“We can’t tell the future, Levi.”

“I hate you! If you’d just shot me, you don’t have to go through all this shit, and yet, why, why would you care?”

“Of course I can’t let you die. I’ll never get over it.”

“But if you don’t, I’ll just kill you again, and…”

“We’ll find a way to change things. Together.”

Levi buried his face in Erwin’s chest and started to cry. Erwin let him – it must’ve been difficult for Levi to bear all of that alone.

“Sorry,” Erwin muttered. “I love you, Levi. Sorry.”

~•~

_“Are you still there?”_

_“Yes. You told me to stay here until you’re asleep.”  
“I am asleep.”_

_“If you are, you wouldn’t be talking to me, right?”_

_“…I guess.”_

_“I thought you said you’re tired, so why are you looking at me instead of sleeping?”_

_“Your eyes… I like looking into your eyes. They’ve the colour of the sky. They’re so blue, and, I don’t know, they seem to be so pretty…”_

_“Your eyes are pretty too, Levi, like the sky.”_

_“Tch. The sky isn’t grey.”_

_“Well, it is, before a rain.”_

_“And what’s good about rain?”_

_“Well… the sky always clears up after a rain. Isn’t that good?”_

_“No.”_

_“And there are rainbows and all that stuff.”_

_“No.”_

_“…anyway, you should go to sleep.”_

_“Stay here until I’m asleep.”_

_“Alright, alright.”_

~•~

The sound of alarm resounded throughout the base at 3 AM.

Engineers were busy running around. Bean was barking loudly. Hanji was busy shouting orders at everyone.

Erwin and Mike rushed to the hangar, and were greeted by the chaos. Hanji immediately ran to Erwin –

“Erwin!” she shouted. “Levi! Where is he?”

“I saw him go back to his room…”

“Wait, is his plane gone?!”

“Either him or someone is using his plane!” she shouted. “Is everyone else coming here?”

“I’ll check to his room,” Erwin said as he dashed off, Mike running behind him. He saw Mikasa, Isabel, and Farrel walking to the hangar as he left.

“I’ll check in the bathroom and his room, you check his office,” Mike said. Erwin nodded, and immediately rushed to the second floor. He opened the door to the office, expecting Levi to be working on some papers or smoking or maybe sleeping…

…it was empty.

 _“Erwin!”_ He could faintly hear Mike calling him. _“He’s not here! Is he up there?”_

~•~

“Mika.”

Mikasa turned without saying anything. Isabel was sitting on the couch, patting Bean, who was sleeping on her lap.

“Have you guys found aniki?”

“Not yet,” she replied. “Erwin and Mike are scouting for him. I think Miss Zoe has called the main base to ask for help.”

“They’ll find him, right?”

“…yes.” Not to give false hope, but Mikasa certainly didn’t want to say ‘no’ either – it would be too cruel. Isabel smiled, hopeful, and continued to pat Bean. Mikasa looked out of the window, seeing if Erwin and Mike were on their way back, but the sky was clear, nothing was there.

“Why did aniki go out so late at night, Mika?”

“I don’t know,” she said. She almost said ‘why don’t you ask him later when he’s back’, but she remembered the possibility that Levi might not be coming back, and stopped herself from saying it.

 _Perhaps,_ she thought to herself. _Perhaps, had I not asked him…_

Farrel opened the door and walked into the room. He grabbed the remote from the table and turned on the television.

 _“Locals had just found a crashed Survey Corps plane,”_ came the voice from the television. _“Apparently the plane was shot down by the Titans. Officials in the Survey Corps had been informed of this incident, however there aren’t any explanations yet. The pilot of the plane is identified as Levi…”_

~•~

A few weeks later.

It was a typical summer day.

The sky outside was clear and the sun was shining brightly. There were some birds flying around in the sky. The place was quiet, almost lifeless, but peaceful.

A brown dog ran out of a grey building, barking. A girl with red hair tied into pigtails was chasing it, but the dog outran her. She finally decided to stop chasing, and looked up at the sky. Strangely enough, the dog stopped too, and looked up into the sky.

There was a small grey spot in the sky, a small dot against the blue background. A soft roar grew louder and louder as the dot grew bigger, and a few minutes later the two of them ran away from the concrete road into the grass fields.

A grey plane landed in front of them, the roar of its engine deafening. The girl covered her eyes from the strong winds, and the dog was barking wildly. Minutes later, the roar of the engines ceased, and after it had stopped completely, a glass cover opened at the top of the plane.

A black-haired man jumped off the plane, carrying a small bag. He took off his helmet and lit a cigarette. He then turned to look at the girl, who was staring at him in disbelief.

“…aniki…”

“Who are you?” he asked. “Why is there a kid in the base?”

“But aniki,” she said, almost sobbing. “It’s me, Isabel…!”

The man looked at her as if examining a strange creature before he sighed and walked away to the hangar. Isabel chased him and caught his hand.

“Aniki!” she shouted. “It’s Isabel! Why don’t you know me? What happened to you? Where were you, aniki?”

“Look, kid,” he said. “I don’t know who you mistake me for, but I don’t…”

“Hey, you!”

They both turned to the voice, and saw two blonde men walking to them. One of them was wearing a normal brown coat, while the other was wearing the blue uniform typically worn by higher-ranked officers.

“We’ve been waiting for you.” The officer smiled and gave out a hand. “I’m Erwin Smith, the corporal in charge here. And this man next to me is Mike Zacharias.”

Mike walked over to the black-haired man, and sniffed. The man cringed a little when Mike sniffed him. Isabel was still staring, tears welling up in her eyes.

“So,” Erwin forced a smile when the man shook his hand. “Your name’s?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> *whispers watch the thing*  
> i blame lmc and jack for this shit you guys should too


End file.
